Understanding Council Meetings

Published: 08 June 2018

Please note that ALL MEETINGS are recorded. The recordings are deleted once the minutes of the meeting have been approved.
If you want to say something at the full council or committee meetings, there is a Public Session at the beginning of the agenda. Time is limited in order to ensure that all matters can be dealt with and everyone has time to speak. The fact that the public session is limited though, does not stop you from contacting the Town Council outside the meeting and talking through your issues. It may be that the staff can offer guidance and help.
A few days after the meetings, DRAFT minutes are available on the website. These minutes remain DRAFT until the following meeting. So if you feel that your point has not been accurately recorded, please contact the Town Clerk no later than a week before the next meeting.
You are welcome to ask the Town Clerk to put an item on the agenda for Councillors to discuss. Contact the Town Clerk at least one week before a meeting to do this. You can then either add to the discussion by speaking in the public session, or come along and hear the councillors discuss the item but you wont be able to speak during the item.
Some of you have asked why the public session is time restricted. The answer is that the public can contact the town council at any time - it doesn't have to be just in the meetings. They can write letters, have meetings with councillors/staff etc. However councillors are not allowed to act without the agreement of the whole council and so their discussions and thoughts have to be recorded in public meetings. The Standing Orders for the council say that meetings cannot extend beyond 3 hours so restrictions are also placed to ensure that this does not happen.